What kind of puppets does africa have

Altogether they create a fascinating and visually powerful exhibition. These large rectangular headdresses are danced principally at marriages. Featuring the head of a hare whose body takes the form of a box, the headdress is actually a sort of miniature stage on top of which an ensemble of figures, human and animal, performs a play.

Sogo bo, the puppet masquerade drama of the Bamana, is an exploration of the moral universe. The relationship between men and women and the problems of domestic relations in polygamous households are important concerns of many Sogo bo performances. Conflict among co-wives is a popular theme in many stories and two of the main characters are Barabara , the Favorite Wife, and the Galomuso , the Bad Wife.

Like folktales and other theatrical forms, these masquerade performances throw cultural values and social relationships into high relief and open them up for public scrutiny. The largest group of masquerade characters and the oldest performed in the theater are bush animals see Bamana Animal Puppets. Shortly after this performance, the show was invited to Austria at the Mistelbach International Puppet Festival. Given the length of the script, this was a big challenge for us, but it was possible.

Over a period of nine months, we translated the script, memorized the lines, and rehearsed to prepare for three festival runs in Spain— the Festival Internacional de Teatro de Calle Getafe , Festival Internacional de Titeres en la calle de Castellon , and Festival Internacional Galicreques Santiago. Soon after these festival performances, Chrispin and I received more invitations to perform in major cities in Spain, Ecuador, Indonesia, Poland, Argentina, and South Africa.

Apart from Tears by the River , I created another show called The Last Man Standing , which is an environmental show about the effects of global warming.

In this puppet performance, I use three different techniques— Bunraku , glove puppets, and mouth puppets—and perform with Peter and Philemon, two other puppeteers. The three of us have had two international invitations for this show thus far, one in Cape Town, South Africa, and the other in Jakarta, Indonesia. This puppet show is part of a collaboration between Kenya, Hungary, and Poland.

The show was directed by Katarzyna Kuzmicz, an established Polish puppet director, and was funded by the Hungarian Embassy in Nairobi. I was the only Kenyan puppeteer in the performance, which got a lot of appreciation from the Kenyan audience although it was a Hungarian story. Over the years, puppetry has evolved here in Kenya because of partnerships with other organizations, which has proven to be a viable way forward.

These partnerships not only expand the viewership of puppet performances, but also create a database of puppetry lovers. Once puppetry is first introduced to many Kenyan audiences, they are often quick to embrace it as a new thing. When it comes to other live puppet performances though, fewer people come to watch the shows. The perception is that puppets are for kids, so why would adults want to see them? But with time, Kenyan audiences have come to embrace it, especially after realizing puppet shows can address sensitive issues.

Actors who perform in both theatre and live entertainment shows tend to pull in big crowds. But the opposite can be said for puppet theatre shows. Actors and comedians who enjoy full house privileges often find their way to the TV stations earlier, and most of them are able to live on their artistic work. This show provided job opportunities to many professional puppeteers including myself , editors, voiceover actors, camera operators, and puppet makers. These partnerships not only expand the viewership of puppet performances, but also create a database of puppetry lovers that we can reach out to whenever an issue needs to be addressed.

Many Kenyan puppeteers work together in almost every project unless they have decided to work on individual projects. This project was funded by the Rotary Foundation and mostly performed live in schools across Nairobi. The program has yet to expand to other regions in Kenya because of pending funding. At the same time, Krystal Puppeteers is about to embark on a peace awareness mission to inform people on the importance of peaceful elections by using puppets.

As elections are just around the corner, other puppeteers are involved in similar projects with other organizations and media production companies. Puppeteers are coming up with new techniques and approaches that will change the effect of protesting.

Earlier pilot episodes focused on reproductive health, corruption, gender roles and diversity. Katwe Corner was designed in response to the need for an effective vehicle to educate and inform broad audiences. The new Social Experiment segment in Season Two employs hidden cameras to observe and comment on how ordinary people behave when they are confronted with dilemmas or unusual situations that require them to reveal their attitudes and make tough choices.

And television, well, that is millions of eyes watching you. We wanted as much of the real character of the person to be revealed in the Social Experiment segment. The producers do not write scripts or filter and rehearse for the show.

The scripts felt artificial and polished. However, listening to young people freely discuss issues of love, relationships, gender, sex, among others, made us realise all the content is there! According to Ocan, Katwe Corner is the most popular segment. Everybody at some point will fall in love and face some hard questions or decisions. That made us decide on the puppet format.

Lukomska notes that Chicken and Chips is a variety show with a puppet component. The Simimi show, which is a political satire show based on the popular XYZ Show in Kenya, was another puppet show Ugandan viewers were able to enjoy.

The style of puppetry, the subject matter and the overall format were quite different from what we are doing though. But our dream is to see the format replicated more often in Uganda — be it for adults or kids — and in other countries in the region and on the continent. Africa has a long and rich history of using puppets to tell stories.